Wild Card Challenge final scoring and winner announced! | Special Feature Episode | 10-7-26

The Wild Card challenge has officially wrapped, with the final scores and official winner announced in our live YouTube broadcast on October 7th, 2026. Review the scoring and listen to the live broadcast here.

As a reminder, for this challenge, our contestants picked from different wild card decks to set the parameters of their trips. First, they selected travel destinations, then hotel, airline, and transferable points cards, which provided their points and miles budgets. And finally, they selected power-ups and obstacles to make their travels a little more realistic to the challenges our readers and listeners face, and make things a little more interesting! Finally, they had to meet together in Melbourne, Australia, a destination that was revealed as a complete surprise in our card draw livestream.

Total scores after Destinations 1 & 2

As a quick reminder, here were the scores each of the contestants earned after the first two destinations:

• Greg
• Destination 1 = 102
• Destination 2 = 106
• Total score = 208
• Nick
• Destination 1 = 105
• Destination 2 = 115
• Total score = 220
• Tim
• Destination 1 = 107
• Destination 2 = 123
• Total score = 230

Destination 3 scoring

During the livestream on Wednesday night, we judges awarded the scores for their third and final destination: Melbourne, Australia.

Here's a breakdown of what each of them earned:

Greg

Flights

• Wallet-friendliness – 8
• Ingenuity – 9
• Luxury – 6
• Duplicability – 10

Accommodation

• Wallet-friendliness – 6
• Ingenuity – 6
• Luxury – 9
• Duplicability – 10

Activities

• Wallet-friendliness – 7
• Ingenuity – 10
• Luxury – 10
• Duplicability – 10

Mini challenge description

• Many of our readers use miles and points for their honeymoons. Pick an activity you could imagine including in a honeymoon trip. – 10

Additional bonus points

• We were impressed with Greg's gameplay whereby he paid for his hotels using airline miles and paid for nearly all his flights using hotel points - 10

Total points for Destination 3 – 121

Total points for Destinations 1 & 2 – 208

Total points for the entire trip – 329

Nick

Flights

• Wallet-friendliness – 7
• Ingenuity – 8
• Luxury – 7
• Duplicability – 10

Accommodation

• Wallet-friendliness – 7
• Ingenuity – 8
• Luxury – 8
• Duplicability – 10

Activities

• Wallet-friendliness – 10
• Ingenuity – 9
• Luxury – 9
• Duplicability – 10

Mini challenge description

• Many of our readers travel with picky eaters. Order a dish you think is locally authentic, but wouldn't scare off a picky eater. – 10

Additional bonus points

• Nick was a real trooper considering he had to fly across the Atlantic three times despite not having to actually visit Europe as part of the challenge, as well as for managing to fit in so many activities despite the lack of sleep - 10

Total points for Destination 3 – 123

Total points for Destinations 1 & 2 – 220

Total points for the entire trip – 343

Tim

Flights

• Wallet-friendliness – 10
• Ingenuity – 10
• Luxury – 10
• Duplicability – 10

Accommodation

• Wallet-friendliness – 9
• Ingenuity – 9
• Luxury – 10
• Duplicability – 10

Activities

• Wallet-friendliness – 8
• Ingenuity – 10
• Luxury – 9
• Duplicability – 10

Mini challenge description

• Many of our readers travel with young children. In this destination, find an activity that would be infant-friendly, but not a snooze fest for Mom and Dad. – 0

Additional bonus points

• Tim had arguably the best set of cards that were picked for the challenge, but what he did with them far exceeded what we imagine many people thought he'd be able to do with them - 10

Total points for Destination 3 – 125

Total points for Destinations 1 & 2 – 230

Total points for the entire trip – 355

Rewatch the livestream below

(01:15) - Recap of Greg's previous score

(01:40) - How did Greg get home?

(04:08) - Greg's final score

(07:49) - Team rebuttal for Greg's score

(11:28) - Recap of Nick's previous score

(12:18) - How did Nick get home?

(15:03) - Nick's final score